Another Classic LEGO Sticker

A while ago I showcased a very cool vintage Lego Classic Space promotional item, a large sticker with a couple of space mini-figs and a great space scene. It seems there was a sister piece to that item, a large Legoland Town sticker promoting the various Lego Collector Packs available at the time, 1978 judging by the Shell Gas Pump and Rally Repair Crew sets featured.

The stickers are all individually cut and are close to actual size, they would no doubt have graced the bunk beds, desks and school bags of thousands of Aussie kids obsessed with the recently launched 'movable' minifigures.

Were these stickers unique to Australia? Hopefully one of our international readers can enlighten me.

While we are on Lego I'd like to give a plug to Brickvention 2010, the national Lego convention and exhibition for adult fans of Lego in Australia, to be held over January 23 and 24 in Melbourne.

I literally stumbled upon Brickvention One back in 2006, it was held in my office building and I just happened to walk into the main display room before I left for the day. I was blown away by the creations I saw, including a diorama of Swanston St that had to be seen to be believed. Nice bunch of people too, serious about their Lego mind you, but possessing the regular number of heads and happy to answer inane questions from less expereinced AFOLs like your author.

Cheers!

Will

MEGO Toltoys Captain America

A very cool item this week, a MEGO World's Greatest Super Heroes Captain America boxed figure. According to Benjamin Holcomb's World's Greatest Toys the box is a USA issued 1975 5th version Captain America, and the figure is a Type 2.

This particular example however is an Australian issue with the "Toltoys Pty Ltd, South Melbourne, Australia" sticker applied. It's only the second Toltoys sticker WGSH example I've owned, the other being Hulk. He's missing the white star from his chest, anyone have a spare original?

Hopefully I'll be able to add more of these Toltoys stickered items to the blog in the future.

Will

Kenbrite Playmobil / Pocket People Update

I've been remiss in not posting about the wonderful new third edition of Axel Hennel's Playmobil Collector book. This great book is an extraordinarily comprehensive reference guide to Playmobil worldwide, containing 4500 images over 650 pages. This edition has an expanded Australian Kenbrite section, as well as increased coverage of promotional items and catalogs from all eras and locations. There is even a nifty limited edition available with an exclusive Klicky (single figure)!

Indispensible to any Playmobil collector, order one today!

I posted a scan some time ago of a 1977 promotional tie-in between Kellogg's and Kenbrite, the Australian distributor of Pocket People / Playmobil. At the time I speculated whether it had actually occurred, since an example of the box or other supporting material had not surfaced.

I'm delighted to report the recent appearance of the back and side panel of this box, finally proving that the promotion did indeed go ahead. By sending away a 50c money-order (!) and nominating your choice of theme (Cowboy, Knight, Workman or Nurse) you could receive one Klicky (with accessories) from Kenbrite. I was more of a Coco Pops kid so I guess that's why this one passed me by! The expiry date on the order form is December 31, 1977.

It's pretty cool to know that stuff like this is still popping up more than 30 years after the fact! I presume the figures were sent bagged, I'd love to hear from anyone who might have sent away for this offer.

Cheers!

Will

Star Wars Update

We recently featured a rare example of the Toltoys Free 4-LOM promotion on a Yoda card, and now we have been spoilt again with this 41 Back Jawa above featuring the same front and back sticker combination.

Thanks to Martin Lacy and Jason West for bring this example to Toltoys.com

Local contributor Aussie James has also come through with the goods, providing us with a great image of the super tough New Zealand issue Toltoys Death Star playset.

The most obvious point of difference to the Australian version is the box, which has a two piece 'board-game' style lift off lid, as opposed to the one piece Australian issue which opens at the ends. The paperwork is also marked Toltoys New Zealand.

Will

Treasures from the 1967 Lincoln International Toy Catalogue

The New Zealand toy company Lincoln International were responsible for some of the coolest licensed (and unlicensed) toys of the 60's and 70's. Best known for their 1966 licensed Batman range of ray guns, water pistols, friction toys and battery operated plastic vehicles, or perhaps for their goofy but highly desirable 1970's range of Mego-Like 8" Monster action figures, Lincoln went in hard with Gerry Anderson licences in 1967.

Captain Scarlet promised great things for those toy companies hoping to match the success of Dinky and their Thunderbird die-cast vehicles, unfortunately whilst popular the Captain never had the impact of his Anderson stable-mates.

Lincoln released three friction vehicles for Scarlet; The Angel Interceptor, Spectrum Patrol Car and Maximum Security Vehicle. Each was blister carded to a colourful but fairly flimsy card along with a plastic Spectrum Badge. The vehicles were packed flat on the cards, and the blisters were attached to the cards with staples. They are a tough find today loose or carded, I've never seen an Angel Interceptor in person but thanks to the diligent work of the Australian Powerhouse Museum there is at least one example stored away in perpetuity.

Much more common to find today are examples of Lincoln's Thunderbirds motorized kits. These must have been big sellers since they turn up quite regularly on eBay and at auction houses such as Vectis. The vehicles are OK, but it is the box art that steals the show on these, nicely rendered images with the designated number on the right front of the box.

There would be many Anderson Thunderbird collectors out there who would dream of finding a full counter display pack like the one above, to my knowledge though none have ever surfaced.

Cheers!

Will

PS - This catalogue is actually undated, I have surmised the 1967 date from the the lack of Batman items combined with the inclusion of Capt Scarlet and the Thunderbird kits, so it could be 1968. I'd love to hear about any other Lincoln material that may be out there, I'll post some of the toys mentioned above in a future post here at Toltoys.com

Licensed Australian Ice Creams Update

These two are at the later end of my collecting calendar, both emerging well into the 80's, but still old enough to be cool additions to the pantheon of Aussie Ice Cream greatness.

ALF (Alien Life Form) was one of those ubiquitous 80's TV shows that you simply could not avoid if you owned a box at the time. A laconic, wise-cracking puppet whose primary endearing feature was that he apparently liked to eat cats. He stuck around long enough and had a strong enough impact on Aussie kids for Pauls to immortalise him in ice-cream, toffee and vanilla!

Speaking of wise-cracking muppets, Australia's own Cartoon Connection host Agro was similarly honoured by Pauls with the so 80's "Mega Munch" compete with bubble-gum nose, ala Bubble O' Bill. Agro was damn funny when let loose, but some of his best work never quite made it to air judging by this out-take reel!

An eclectic mix of updates coming, stay tuned!

Will

More Ice-Creams!

Long time readers of this blog will know that licenced ice-cream items, and Star Wars in particular, are my favourite vintage items. So imagine the smile when the images below came down the line from Queensland, a few guerilla "on-the-run" snap-shots of a collection of original art-work and related items that remains for the time being anonymous...

The translite above shows a great set-up of the four Star Wars Popsicle wrapper flavours. Han does not look pleased about being Raspberry....

The next image is another translite of the original art used on the front of the Peters / Pauls infamous Jedi Jelly ice-creams.

Followed by a hurried :-) shot of another major element of the box art, the actual ice-cream!

And a translite of the completed product and wrapper!

The final translite above is one I knew I'd seen many times, and after a quick search I found its final resting place (flipped) on the side panel of the Star Wars Popsicle box, see below...

The last two items are a real treat, a very tough poster and the complete sticker set of New Zealand Tip-Top Star Wars R2-D2 Space Ices...

And the complete run of 16 sticker premiums...

I'm indebted to a very special Toltoys.com contributor from Queensland (who knows who he is!) for all of these great images, thanks mate!

Cheers,

Will

Star Wars Toltoys Update

Our latest Toltoys Star Wars update features the unassuming little green guy above. A regular ESB Yoda you say? Computer says No. What appears to be a regular Kenner USA release is in fact a rare Toltoys release Survival Kit Offer card, see the reverse shot below. Or at least that's what it was, until Toltoys updated the offer with the ultra-rare 4 Lom Offer stickers. Yes that's right, a double Toltoys offer card. Not since the Anakin POTF / Aussie Coin Offer Sticker combo has a Toltoys double act come along, and aren't we glad it did!

Part two of this update features the mysterious "Toltoys NZ upside-down blister" attached to the 9/10th scale card. If I were a northern hemispherian I wouldn't be able to resist some kind of "Down Under" pun here, but I'm not so I will.

These crazy blisters appear to have been affixed to their cards by Ugnaughts, it's the only possible explanation. The cards themselves are also slightly smaller than their Kenner counterparts (see the pic below for comparison); again resist the urge for size jokes please. This Hammerhead is only the third carded example I've seen, although there are a couple of cardbacks out there too. The supposition of New Zealand origin comes largely from anecdotal evidence, plus anyone whose ever seen an episode of Flight of the Conchords understands it's no stretch for weird yet strangely entertaining stuff to come out of the Land of the Long White Sheep. Anyone have any of these weird blisters out there?

Finally this update we have a Droids 3-pack set. It appears to be a standard Kenner USA release but check the back and you'll notice all the height measurements have been blacked out. Why? Well for the same reason the Royale with Cheese exists - the metric system. The card was printed with US imperial measurements, not the proper (!) legally approved Australian metrics. While they appear to have been done by hand that seems unlikely, so unless Toltoys employed a thousand 15 year-old work-experience kids for the worst week of their lives I'd suspect (as does the discoverer and owner of this item) that they were created with a template or hastily constructed overprint. It will only take one more example to prove the theory, anyone got one?

Huge thanks to Dax for these three incredible items this week, what will his eagle eyes turn up next?

Cheers,

Will